Is this allowed?

[F.C.Dosh]

Hello all,

I just found out some site is using a picture I made, and is direct-linking to it from my site freecasinodosh.com.
I felt proud at first, coz someone displaying a picture I have created, but after looking at the page it was on, it feels more and more like blackhat seo in there.

The site is: kino(minus)film(dot)tk

There are lots of backlinked pictures on there, including mine.

I already blocked the ip, so it is not displayed anymore, but I realy wonder if this site is being legal.

I wonder if I should contact abuse now....

Also i wonder if it counts as a backlink, as I dont see it in the google-webmaster stats.

I guess this is what happens with original content...

[Renee]

You should change it to an obscene picture and let them display it. That will teach them from stealing from you

[F.C.Dosh]

Heheh.....Thats actually quite funny

I might do something like that, thank you.

[DaveL]

I once found another bingo portal had hotlinked one of my screenshots. So I changed it to a massive image with a message that said - "Don't believe what you read here, this review was written by the operator. For a real review go to..." and my site's URL.

Another favourite is to swap out hotlinked images with 5000px x 5000px empty transparent gifs - then it makes the other site look very broken. You can only do that one when there's no height set in the img html.

[Chips]

You can also set up hotlink protection via cPanel. This way no one, unless on your whitelist can use your images. Hotlinking saps bandwidth from your server so it may be a wise choice to enable if you are having issues with image thieves.

[F.C.Dosh]

Thanks for the reply folks,

I like the idea's of putting a larger, or obscene picture on there, but then again : the bandwith involved would be higher.
Although that's not the main problem.

The cpanel option I didnt explore yet, but I think its a very good way of protecting your material, thanks for that.

[Renee]

I once found another bingo portal had hotlinked one of my screenshots. So I changed it to a massive image with a message that said - "Don't believe what you read here, this review was written by the operator. For a real review go to..." and my site's URL.

That's a bloody great idea! At least you'll get traffic from their site

[grem]

That is the best defence I have read and funny as well. Thank you DaveL. I will wait for another opportunity to do this soon enough.